Is It Right to Oppose Abortion.doc

Abortion has been an issue for a long period of time and it has derived from our principles and conscience to public law and awareness. The rising of abortion has led to be an ethical issue introducing philosophical ideas regarding this (Bouchier-Hayes, 1998). Abortion is considered to be deontological. It is our duty to do right or wrong. The philosopher Kant argued the fact that we humans should be treated as end in ourselves instead of means to an end. Humans are already valuable and don't need to depend on external factors to be valuable. This contributes to the issue of abortion. The ending of a life should not be considered as legal due to the fact that it ends all possibilities of contributions that the person could have

Mennonite Quarterly Review, 2005

This paper responds critically to several issues raised, implicitly and explicitly, in the Mennonite Church (MC) USA Statement on Abortion passed at the Atlanta 2003 church assembly and works constructively toward a "consistent ethic of life" from a peace tradition perspective. The overarching aim is to help Mennonites, as well as other peace church tradition and nonviolence-minded Christians, to think clearly and consistently about abortion in connection to other life and peace issues, especially capital punishment and war. In this, my desire is to help equip the church for fulfilling the mission to which the MC USA statement calls us: "We will promote consistency in favor of human life along the entire spectrum of human existence. We stand in opposition to sacrifice of life in the womb, in the death chamber and through war in all its forms." In the summer of 2003 the Mennonite Church USA adopted a statement on abortion that included the following words: "We will promote consistency in favor of human life along the entire spectrum of human existence. We stand in opposition to sacrifice of life in the womb, in the death chamber and through war in all its forms' 7 (158-160). 1 While this call to a consistent ethic of life points the church in the right direction, and although there is much of value in the MC USA statement, there are a number of instances of ambiguity and inconsistency that still remain to be addressed. The matter of a consistent ethic of life is significant for at least three reasons. First, the early church writers promoted such an ethic. As historian Michael Gorman writes: In this earliest period, Christians were unable to separate abortion from violence in general.... The earliest Christian ethic, from Jesus to Constantine, can be described as a consistent pro-life ethic. It was in favor of human life regardless of age, nationality or social standing. It pleaded for the poor, the weak, women, children, and 1. The Mennonite Church USA Statement on Abortion is available online at www.mennoniteusa.org/ NewItems/delegates/statement_abortion.pdf. All citations refer to the line numbers of Sie document. Cf. Article 22 (82) of Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1995) which declares that "violence is not the will of God/' including abortion, capital punishment and war.